• On da half shell

    Might be my favorite way to eat crappie. They are dang good fried but these are really incredible. Cooking them on the half shell makes grilling them so much easier. Crappie take up a good bit of smoke flavor too. I use salt and Old Bay for seasoning. I put a dab of butter on them right before taking them off the grill. Total cook time 15 minutes at around 350 degrees.




    If you like grilled fish, you'll love this way of cooking it. I don't remember how I decided to try them this way. I know lots of ocean fish, on the Gulf at least, are cleaned and cooked this way. I've always liked grilled fish but it's always been a hassle to cook them, especially crappie, because they fall apart. No issues with that anymore. Only cooking advice I can give is to keep your grill from flaming up. If the scales get charred they start coming off the skin and make a mess. I burned the scales on the first batch that I cooked Saturday night. The egg was too hot and the coals were flaming up when I put the first round on. I got it choked back down to 350-375 for the second round and those are the ones in the picture. The ones with the charred scales were still very tasty, but they were hard to remove the fillet from the skin.

    This also works well for white bass. Another big plus is it takes less time to clean the fish too. Zip them off the backbone and cut out the rib cage. Done.
    This article was originally published in forum thread: On da half shell started by FurFlyin View original post
    Comments 13 Comments
    1. gravelman6's Avatar
      gravelman6 -
      Never seen it done this way. If I understand it right you fillet a crappie and leave the skin on one side then dip into egg skin and all? Sure looks good!
    1. "G"'s Avatar
      "G" -
      I like them that way too
    1. pesce's Avatar
      pesce -
      Great way to cook them, i also spray the grate with PAM or rub with oil.
    1. Ketchn's Avatar
      Ketchn -
      I tried that a while back and it was very tasty after I saw a post about it I think you made .
    1. Speck Detector's Avatar
      Speck Detector -
      Got a Air fryer/Toaster combo recently, & sounds like a good recipe to try on it.
    1. Barnacle Bill's Avatar
      Barnacle Bill -
      I've never had them that way but willing to try.
    1. pigboy's Avatar
      pigboy -
      Quote Originally Posted by gravelman6 View Post
      Never seen it done this way. If I understand it right you fillet a crappie and leave the skin on one side then dip into egg skin and all? Sure looks good!
      I believe he is cooking the fillets on his Big Green Egg cooker. He leaves the scales on the fillet and does not turn(flip) fillet on the grill. Eat the meat down to the skin!!!
      Wonderful idea by the way.
    1. hdhntr's Avatar
      hdhntr -
      I do this for BG quite a bit but simply cut head off, scale them, put garlic in melted butter on them and broil or you can do it on grill. or you can scale your crappie then make your filets leaving skin and cut out rib cage. scale them in bucket of water to not spray scales everywhere.
    1. hdhntr's Avatar
      hdhntr -
      IF your as wacky as Mac you will leave tails on them too. Many claim they taste like chips and enjoy it that way
    1. Crappie ciller's Avatar
      Crappie ciller -
      This is a great idea that I’m excited to try out asap! Thanks!
    1. FurFlyin's Avatar
      FurFlyin -
      Yes these are cooked on my egg. It’s important to not allow the coals to flare up or the scales get charred and they’re nasty. Not hard to do but I overlooked that once. They will not stick to the grill with the scales on. Easy to cook, easy to serve and easy to eat. The last ones I did I put a dollop of real butter on each fillet along with some fresh minced garlic. They were incredible.
    1. CRAPPIE HUNTER 2008's Avatar
      CRAPPIE HUNTER 2008 -
      Quote Originally Posted by gravelman6 View Post
      Never seen it done this way. If I understand it right you fillet a crappie and leave the skin on one side then dip into egg skin and all? Sure looks good!

      May have misread your response, but it read like to me you were saying he dips in like a egg wash before he puts on the grill......but he's talking about his grill that he cooked them on. They are just fileted, seasoned and cooked scale side down on his Big Green Egg Grill.

      Just wanted to clarify. Sorry if i mis read
    1. skeetbum's Avatar
      skeetbum -
      Those look YUMMY!!! I do something similar with almost the exact seasonings but under the broiler. Mama is also a fan of this, and much easier cleanup than the fryer. Cardiologist probably won’t scold me for this either.
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